Concerts and a Doc about this ragtime surrealist stuck in the 70s.

Viv Stanshall always struck me as a sort of 'fated' character, doomed somehow. His combination of staunch deliberate weirdness (and disregard for trends, taste and indeed, most of society), madcap, edge of your seat humour and lyrical, surreal wordplay always seemed to be underpinned by a deep sadness, perhaps reflected in his early death, from smoking in bed.

However, there's a massive archive of performances, audio and video that he left behind, which is always inspiring to dip into. As the man himself said, 'Be realistic, demand the impossible!'

BB&MP bio:

Joe Howe makes weird synthesiser music under the name Ben Butler & Mousepad. He's released a bunch of albums under different names too, played shows all over Europe and The Us and recently composed and arranged music for a Synthesizer Opera, premiered in Berlin in 2010. For more info, check out: http://joe-howe.com